67 Chevelle ls conversion

[f6john]

I’m going to pick up a Corvette 5.7 ls1 tomorrow. It does not have any of the front end accessory drive with it. Any of you have any experience with this swap and what would be the best drive system to go with? It’s in the early planning stage now but I think I will be using Holley/Hooker for installation hardware. Transmission will be automatic but not sure which one other than it will be overdrive. I get all the rowing of greats with my 6 speed Corvette. I appreciate any info you guys can share!

 

[Honky Kong jr]

I’m going to pick up a Corvette 5.7 ls1 tomorrow. It does not have any of the front end accessory drive with it. Any of you have any experience with this swap and what would be the best drive system to go with? It’s in the early planning stage now but I think I will be using Holley/Hooker for installation hardware. Transmission will be automatic but not sure which one other than it will be overdrive. I get all the rowing of greats with my 6 speed Corvette. I appreciate any info you guys can share!

Good info here I was a member a few years ago http://www.chevelles.com/forums/#/ not to push you off but your Chevelle specific info would be there.

 

[f6john]

I’m a member their too, but I try to pick up ideas and info anywhere I can.

 

[f6john]

This is my starting point.

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[87scotty]

I see the engine stand was a last minute idea but hey hitch works good to lol looks good

 

[f6john]

I see the engine stand was a last minute idea but hey hitch works good to lol looks good

Talk about last minute ideas, I went to pick up the engine without any straps! Seller let me have the one strap I used to get it 90 miles down the road. Reason for the hitch under the pan was to keep the engine from “nosing over” onto the crank pulley. The next 150 miles to my garage it will be covered and have a couple more straps employed. The flat “batwing” style oil pan on Corvettes make them much more stable to move than gen one small blocks.

 

[f6john]

Well more parts are starting to roll in. It seems that Holley has the most complete line of swap parts for cars and trucks and specifically for the A body Chevelle. I ordered the 302-2 oil pan which has proven to be a perfect fit for clearance in the Chevelle frame. They have a new pan out that will also fit but has clearance for a stroker crank in the ls1 and provision for oil drain back for turbo installations. As you can see from the pics above I got none of the front brackets, accessories, belts, bolts or tensioner. I wasn’t looking forward to scrounging all these parts and trying to determine what will fit and what won’t.

Holley solved that problem for me too. They just came out with a new kit that includes a new water pump casting that provides the mounts for all the accessories, alternator, power steering, air conditioning and of course the water pump itself. The kit includes every bolt, tensioner, harmonic balancer and all new alternator,power steering pump and air compressor. Similar to the the Corvette engines, the water pump is serviceable without removing the housing, a real plus.

None of this was cheap but the time savings, having all new parts engineered to work make it seem worthwhile for my needs. Now if the weather moderates some I can get out in the garage to start tearing into this progect

 

[f6john]

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Haven’t unpacked the other box, too many pieces to deal with right now.

 

[yevgenievich]

That is the better way to start, with all new accessories.

 

[Crispy]

I'll be watching this thread and pulling the wife over to pull on her heart strings haha. Good luck and hope you have it running soon.

 

[f6john]

In this case “soon” is a relative term. The car has been sitting in the same spot for 20years. So if I can get it road worthy in the next two years I will feel successful. I’m planning on a complete suspension revamp, possibly a 9” rear, conversion to 4 wheel discs along with a good deal of body work. I’m going to try and take a lot of pics as the project proceeds.

I have an end game in mind. I have twin grandsons who just turned two years old this month. Their dad is a gear head too but his tastes run a little different from mine. I plan to pass my Chevelle and my Corvette on to them one day. They will probably end up with my square too.

 

[Honky Kong jr]

Well here we are at page 2 and still no pics of an A body......

 

[f6john]

If not for photobucket, there would be plenty! Don’t have any on my iPad right now but they will appear here first. My garage is so full that I can’t get a good angle on it. It’s been wedged into the same corner for 20 years and I’m going to have to move a bunch of stuff just to get it where I can work on it.

I think I am going to document the process on ls1tech but I’ll post here too. I’m going to either use what I learn to ls swap my square or salvage the old school 350 that is in my Chevelle now. The latter being the most logical and practical as it is a 350 4 bolt truck block anyway.

 

[f6john]

1. Here she is in all her bent up glory!
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[f6john]

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A few shots to show her resting place. A good thing that sheet metal is readily available! Not as bad as it looks and the other side is pristine. Still a lot of work ahead but I look forward to it.